Father Figure
by Irhaboggle
Summary: All her life, Elphaba had wanted a father. Or rather, a father figure. Because she did have a father, but Oz knew he was terrible at it. But then again, what exactly was the definition of a father? And such a question gets all the more confusing when Elphaba realizes that her father may not be her father after all (emotionally and biologically speaking).


Elphaba sighed miserably as she slammed the door shut behind her. She and her father, Frex, had just gotten into another argument. The green girl just couldn't understand why Frex didn't love her. What difference did it make that she had green skin? Was that really a flaw that was so hard to love? Would Frex have loved her if she had been born with skin like his or Nessa's? And speaking of which, Nessa was proof that Frex did in fact have the capacity to love, so it wasn't that Frex just didn't love anyone at all. That was entirely untrue! Anyone who saw him with Nessa, even if only for a few seconds, could easily tell how much the two adored one another. Frex definitely played up the "doting father" role when it came to her, so why did he never even make an attempt with Elphaba? By this point, however, Elphaba wasn't necessarily craving Frex's love, she just wondered what it might've been like to have a parent that actually loved her. She wondered what her life would've been like if she could've had a father figure that actually gave a darn about her and wasn't constantly arguing with her or bringing her down. And for what? Green skin? Nessa wasn't exactly a physically perfect daughter either... These bitter thoughts continued to swirl in Elphaba's mind as she sat in her room and stew, Frex sighing angrily right outside her bedroom door.

But Elphaba finally received her answer to her silent wish for a better father figure when she enrolled in Shiz University. One of the professors, a Goat named Dr. Dillamond, had taken Elphaba under his wing (or hoof, rather) and become something like a father figure to her while, in return, she became his protégée, assisting him not only with preparing for lectures, but for helping him fight for Animal Rights.

"Dr. Dillamond, I'd like to help in your Animal research," Elphaba had told him after one particularly invigorating lecture about science, equality, and how science could sometimes be manipulated to manipulate equality.

"Really?" he raised his horned head, genuinely amazed at any of his students actually coming to him with a areal, keen interest to learn about life instead of just another question about the next test or essay. Oh, he still welcomed those questions of course! But to hear someone actually prove that they had listened to his speeches and wanted to help seemed impossible.

"Yes, really!" Elphaba nodded earnestly and Dr. Dillamond smiled at her, totally unbothered by her green skin.

"I'd be glad to have you on board, Miss..." he trailed off, a bit embarrassed that he didn't know her name.

"Elphaba, sir, and I won't let you down!" she promised, totally unbothered by him forgetting her name. She shook his hoof excitedly.

From that day on, the two spent all of their free time together, studying and discovering and, without even meaning to, bonding. Elphaba began to see the old Goat as something of her father figure and he reciprocated the feeling, having been able to weasel a rather upsetting truth out of the green girl during one of their late-night experiments. He had discovered that, while Elphaba did indeed have a father, he was not very loving towards her and had neglected her physically and emotionally. Hearing that had burned Dr. Dillamond's soul, or whatever it was that Animals had, and he had, from then on, vowed to be the man that Frex never was. It was the start of a beautiful friendship!

"You did it Dr. Dillamond!" Elphaba had practically sung one night when their tests had gone exceptionally well. She couldn't be happier. Finally, she had a father figure and he was proud of her. He actually enjoyed spending time with her! And Elphaba could not remember a time when Dr. Dillamond had ever gotten cross with her. Very different from Frex... Dr. Dillamond might've been an Animal, but he loved her more than Frex ever had. She continued to cheer him on, but he shook his horned head bashfully.

"It was only with your help," he replied warmly. He hadn't planned on having kids, he hadn't even planned on a mate, but then this strange but devoted green girl took the scene. Dr. Dillamond loved her as much as any father loved a daughter and he patted her on the back with a hoof.

But it seemed that all good things had to come to an end, and sadly, Dr. Dillamond was one of them. His subversive acts, his experiments, were discovered by the government and he was arrested for daring to speak out. Worst of all, Elphaba had been forced to see it happen, watching the old Goat be hustled away by expressionless guards, still bleating on in anguish and trying so hard to escape. In that moment, Elphaba lost the only real parent she'd ever had, her one true father figure literally ripped out of her life. But instead of crying over the loss of Dr. Dillamond, Elphaba only became more determined to complete his work, throwing herself headfirst into her and his studies both, dreaming of the day when she would be able to set things right and bring him back again.

Or at least, she dreamt of that day until she realized that the very man she had been planning to appeal to was the very same one that had arrested Dr. Dillamond in the first place: the Wizard of Oz himself. After expressing very open and hostile disdain towards anything non-human, Elphaba realized that once what a con he was and knew she would have to turn elsewhere to save the Animals of Oz. The Wizard was an enemy now, but unfortunately, he was an enemy with very good publicity and, only a few seconds into Elphaba's rebellion against him, he'd branded her as a wicked witch and all of Oz believed it without even bothering to try and find the truth for themselves.

When Frex found out about Elphaba's little act of defiance, he spoke with the Wizard personally, trying to disassociate himself from her.

"Your Ozness!" Frex bowed humbly. "As I am sure some people may have informed you, I am Elphaba's father, but I assure you that no wicked thing out of her mouth was something that I ever taught her, goodness, no! I had only ever tried to raise her to the light, towards you, your Ozness, but she had always been a bit weird in the head. I think it was the green skin. Some of it must've brushed off up here," the trembling man paused to tap his balding head. It was slick with a nervous sweat.

The Wizard, meanwhile, listened with a guarded expression as this foolish old preacher continued to mumble fearfully up to him.

"Let us talk, man to man," Frex continued to plead. "I know Elphaba's actions reflect poorly upon me and my family, but know that we had nothing to do with it! It was all her! Only her! I never had a single hand in any of it! Goodness knows that I tried my best! I tried to make her good, but she was always a wicked one, and now you know it yourself, your Ozness!" Frex continued to bow, up and down, up and down. "I just wanted you to know that I don't support any of her subversive acts and no one in their right ever would, your Ozness!" he finished at last, with a final bow. In the end, his groveling in submission had worked and the Wizard pardoned him for ever doubting his good character.

"I believe you when you say that you had nothing to do with Elphaba and want nothing to do with her either," the Wizard said.

"Yes sir, you're absolutely right sir!" Frex agreed, trembling now from relief instead of fear. "She is nothing but wicked!"

"Indeed," the Wizard nodded slowly, then he dismissed the lowly patriarch from his presence.

Frex was wiped his brow in relief as he turned away from the Wizard of Oz and exited his magnificent throne room. Well! That had gone quicker than expected! He'd only groveled for five minutes! Now, he could go come with a clean conscience. Let all of Oz know his innocence, he would not be pegged for a guilty man alongside Elphaba! No, not that wicked witch. Frex shook his head nastily as he continued to silently berate his wayward daughter, but his thoughts were interrupted by someone calling to him as he walked down the hall that had led to the throne room.

"Do you really think she's wicked?" the voice asked and Frex was surprised to note how very bleating it sounded. Then, following what sounded like the clopping of hooves, a Goat appeared. He repeated his question to snap Frex out of his rather rude staring. "Do you think she's wicked?"

"What? Elphaba? Yes. I do," Frex answered with conviction. "And now please, good Goat, spare me your complaints or jibes. I know full well what a freak she is and as I have told the Wizard himself, although I may be her father, I claim no ties with her!" he added sternly, but he received the opposite reaction he'd expected, the Goat only shaking his horned head slowly, almost as though he was disappointed in Frex. What?

"I see what Elphaba means. Your heart is even hollower than that of a Tik-Tok creature," he bleated softly, dark eyes seeming to stare into Frex's soul. Frex found himself very uncomfortable with such close, intense, judgmental scrutiny.

"What do you mean by that?" the old preacher demanded, trying to draw himself up again.

"I mean that she told me what a cruel and neglectful father you were to her," the Goat almost seemed to berate Frex. "She told me how you far favored her younger sister, lavishing all your love on her and sparing none for Elphaba herself. But she is a good girl, proud, brave, smart, hard-working, determined, righteous. You should've been proud of her, and I disdain you, good sir, that you should've so taken for granted such a wonderful, talented, promising child," the Goat finished his remark with a harsh bleat that might've been a scoff.

Once again, Frex felt his body burning in shame, but this time, it wasn't because of his ties with Elphaba, but rather, his lack thereof. Although everything that the old Goat had said was entirely true, to hear him say it back to Frex in such a condemning tone was quite offensive.

"Listen, mister, I don't know who you think you are, but you have no right to talk to me that way!" Frex growled at the Goat.

"First of all, I am a doctor! Dr. Dillamond," the Goat said crossly. "And secondly, I think I am the only decent father figure that Elphaba has ever had, and that is exactly what gives me the right to tell you these things. You are her real father, and yet you left it up to me, a lowly professor, to fill that role in her life. Imagine! How horrible must you be for your own daughter to take greater pleasure in her professor than her father?" the Goat shook his head again, bleating this time in irritation instead of disdain. "I don't know who _you_ think you are," he shot back at Frex. "But I know that it is no man, but a monster. You were no father figure to Elphaba, you were nothing but her tormentor, and I hope that this superficial pride you carry now with you from the Wizard will eventually turn back into its proper shame," the Goat's eyes flashed again, with a righteous sort of anger, but before he could go on, his words had turned entirely into goat bleating and it was loud enough for several Ozian guards to hear.

"Is this thing bothering you?" one of the guards as Frex, jerking a thumb to the bleating goat. The goat only looked angrier, pawing the ground with a cloven hoof and looking quite like he wanted to run right into the impudent man with his massive, curly horns.

"Yes, he is," Frex replied crossly, the guards reaffirming his false sense of self-grandiose. "Take him away!" he dared to command, as though he were the Wizard himself, but the guards only obeyed and two of them grabbed Dr. Dillamond roughly.

"Alright you, come on! We got a special place for your kind!" one of them sneered, and then, over Dr. Dillamond's increasingly frantic attempts to escape, they laughed and dragged him back down the hall until Frex was left alone in silence once more.

Later that night, Frex found himself lying in a shabby hotel somewhere between the Ozian Palace and the edge of the Emerald City. Although he fell asleep well, his dreams were dotted with memories of Elphaba and sprinkled with bits and pieces of that conversation with that weird, smelly old Goat. He could still hear that Goat's accusatory voice, calling him out on his cruelty towards Elphaba and reprimanding him for his hypocrisy, daring to claim self-righteousness despite his own sins and then daring to condemn Elphaba for her wickedness without first stopping to check his own. He could hear the Goat blaming him for the way Elphaba turned out, only then to ease off and try to persuade him that Elphaba was not nearly as bad as she seemed and it was only Frex's own unwillingness that kept them from seeing eye to eye.

"You should be proud of her!" he could hear the Goat echo in his dreams. "You are lucky to have a child like her. Why can't you see it?"

Then the dream ended with a new Goat, far larger and grander than the shabby one Frex had seen in the Ozian palace. His smile was impossibly large, stretching from either side of his face to reveal terrifyingly large teeth. His eyes were impossibly big too, and they were red, seeing everything and nothing and staring right into Frex's eyes and through his soul. His horns were a perfect arch and shone a blinding white. Frex had never felt so naked or vulnerable in his whole life. The Goat judged him with the sin of Pride and accused him of forgetting to love even the least of these and when the Goat finished, his voice was wrathful and merciless. He condemned Frex for having never been a father figure at all, even to Nessa, insisting that he had hurt her in ways just as terrible as what he had done to Elphaba. This thought, and that horrific, terrifying Goat, haunted Frex for the rest of his life, even after he awoke in a cold sweat the next day, and he died from the stress of it all a few months later.

Elphaba, upon hearing about Frex's death, was unsure what to think. Although she was glad that suffering had been alleviated on both sides, what with him being gone now and all, it was still somewhat of a shock to hear that she had lost a family member, someone who had had such a large impact on such a large part of her life, and she hadn't even gotten to have a proper goodbye. This man who had once been 50% of her life (Nessa being the other 50%), was gone, and she was only learning about it in passing and hadn't even gotten to see him before it happened. He, Elphaba's father, was just gone. Just like that. Right out of her life, and she hadn't even realized it, and she would never have to face him again...

Elphaba's last, _real_ , farewell with Frex had been all the way back when he'd dumped her at Shiz not to be a student, but to be Nessa's nanny. That was when he gave Nessa the ruby slippers and Elphaba nothing at all but a firm warning to care for Nessa. That had been their final farewell, the closest either had had to proper closure or a discussion about their internalized rivalry. Now, Elphaba would never get to tell him anything ever again, good or bad, and she would never even get to see his face again. This should've been a good thing to her, especially given how hard she'd tried to avoid him in the past, but for some reason, to hear that he had finally crossed that final separation made her feel hollow inside. Not hollow with grief, because such a feeling would imply that losing him had caused her to somehow lose part of herself and he had not been a big enough part of her for her to feel that way even though he had raised her (for better or worse), but just hollow with numbness. She didn't feel anything at all, though that in and of itself seemed to be a feeling, if that made any sense.

Not long after this, Elphaba suffered another massive emotional blow that left her reeling and empty at the same time, and this one, once again, had to do with father figures. This time, however, it had nothing to do with loss, but everything to do with gain. She realized that she had a third father figure in her life, this one was her birthfather. That was right, Frex was not her birthfather. Although everyone, even Frex, Elphaba and Elphaba's birthfather, had thought that Frex had been Elphaba's real dad, a little green bottle revealed otherwise.

That bottle had belonged to Elphaba's mother and the only time Elphaba ever found anything even close to resembling it was in the Wizard of Oz's liquor cabinet. So all along, Elphaba had been trying to fight for her surrogate father against her "birth" father only to finally find a tiny semblance of peace after he died only to find out that, all along, that man had only been an adoptive father, of sorts. That wasn't to say there was anything wrong with adoption at all, though, that was simply to say that Elphaba's real father, all along, had been the wicked Wizard of Oz himself. Elphaba smashed his little green bottle after finding it and almost did likewise with her own. Almost.

It was after that third trauma regarding a father figure that Elphaba began to truly wonder what constituted a father. Was it the male that gave birth to you? The male that raised you from childhood to adulthood? Or the male that loved you (in a parental way, of course) even if he was only in your life for a short period of time? But what did it matter to the green girl? Two of them had been forced away from her, one by her real birthfather and one by death itself, and that other was, well, her real birthfather! And he wasn't exactly on good terms with her at the moment... Maybe he could put on a happy face, but he was no more than a well-practiced actor. Elphaba had to wonder that, even if she had sided from the Wizard from the get-go and learned about being his daughter while working alongside him, if he still would've loved her at all even then, or if there was no love in his heart left for her either, the same way it had been with Frex. But again, what did it matter? Elphaba had lost all three of his father figures anyway. What did she care anymore? No, she decided at last, she hated them all...

Dr. Dillamond woke with a start to find himself in a very big, very beautiful, very pink bedroom. What in Oz?

"You're awake," a strangely familiar voice spoke out and Dr. Dillamond turned to see a teary-eyed blond gaze at him from the bedside. One look in her puffy red eyes and it all came back to him without a single word needing to be spoken.

After being dragged away from Frex by those Ozian guards, Dr. Dillamond had been tortured into becoming an animal and, for the next few years, he had been nothing more than a goat. A mute, mindless creature that walked on all-fours and could only bleat to communicate. His brilliant mind and capability to speak Ozian had been stripped away from him until nothing but meaningless sound remained. But then, though this memory was dim because the memory of a goat was very weak in comparison to the memory of a Goat, a little blond girl had come to his aid, releasing him from his prison with the Wizard of Oz.

She had led him away and, day by day, ministered to him, fixing not just his physical wounds, but his mental and emotional ones as well. Then, after finding the best counselors and therapists in all of Oz, this strange little blond girl had managed to wake him up again. Slowly but surely, day by day, Dr. Dillamond had woken up again until he was a Goat once again. But then, that still didn't explain how or why he was lying in that girl's fancy bedchambers! This surely wasn't his room! He never would've tolerated so much pink and sparkly decoration! The girl must've bought up 100 Lurlinemas shops to fill her room with all the glittery things it contained!

But then, even that memory came back to him. It had been something of a last battle, happening while some fat old lady who quite resembled a carp or a trout, was being dragged down into the very same cell Dr. Dillamond had once lived in. The blond had issued for his proper release, no longer having to play a parole card in order to get him out of jail, and was replacing him with this large woman, Madam Morrible. She had screamed, struggled, cried and fought with tooth, nail, and even claw to escape her fate and had managed to strike Dr. Dillamond as they traded spots on either side of the bar. The kick sent the poor Goat to the floor and then Madam Morrible tried to kick her guards away before grabbing a chamber pot in the corner of the cell and dashing it across the faces of the guards. Then, while they cried out in disgust and pain as the contents burned their eyes, the woman hurled the empty pot violently at the Goat and it had struck him right on the temple. Of course, in the end, Madam Morrible was finally, properly subdued and locked away, but not before two guards had to be treated for eye infections and Dr. Dillamond to be nursed from the nasty lump on his noggin. Despite having very big, curly horns, his head could still suffer from blunt-force trauma...

Dr. Dillamond was roused from his slowly-churning mind by the sound of that blond girl, Galinda, whimpering a little. Although the Goat was still somewhat out of it at this point, his protective instincts kicked in at once and he met the girl's eyes again, but this time, instead of confusion, there was only compassion in his eyes. Unsure of what to do, but knowing that he couldn't just stay quiet, Dr. Dillamond opened his arms to offer a hug. It was a lame idea, but it was all he had. To his surprise, though, it worked, and Galinda fell right into his embrace at once, those soft whimpers finally becoming full-sobs. And it was some time during those few minutes, Galinda bawling into the old Goat's shoulder, that the Goat realized that he had been quite judgmental too, having severely misjudged Galinda for a fool. She wasn't snobby, she was only ever just ignorant. But now, her ignorance had melted away and all that remained was a very lost, very confused young woman.

And what's more, Dr. Dillamond was able to identify at once why Galinda was really crying. It was because she missed Elphaba. Though Dr. Dillamond had never paid much heed to Galinda when she was still but an air-headed Shiz student, because he had paid so much attention to Elphaba, he had come to realize how much Elphaba had cared for the ditzy, bubbly blond. Sure, back then, Dr. Dillamond had only attributed it as a simple, silly college crush, but seeing Galinda sob so hard over the loss of Elphaba made the Goat finally realize, so many years later, that whatever it had been that she had shared with Elphaba, it had been a lot more than just a silly little crush that Elphaba had whispered to him about in the dead of the night when they were staying up late together to do lab reports. Now Dr. Dillamond felt like the fool, for having ever thought that Elphaba would be one to fall into silly, idle romance and for thinking that there was no way Galinda could've ever truly loved Elphaba, let alone be a good partner for her. It seemed that all of the Goat's old beliefs had been proved false and he felt terrible for ever having those old beliefs at all.

And what's more, Dr. Dillamond was sure that Galinda wasn't just crying because she missed Elphaba or was scared, but because this was her only time to cry freely, unquestioned. No doubt, the poor blond knew that no one else in all of Oz (human, animal or Animal) missed Elphaba except him, and she was taking it to her advantage, finally getting out those long-repressed feelings in his cloven hooves, for she had no human arms to go to. This scenario of feeling unsafe to show emotion anywhere outside of the arms of Dr. Dillamond was becoming startlingly and disturbingly familiar to the old Goat. Galinda had suffered far more evil than Dr. Dillamond had initially given her credit for, and now he kicked himself for it, but at the same time, he knew that Galinda could not go on crying forever...

"Now, now, Miss G-a-linda, do stop crying. Mourning is healthy, but don't make a mess. Let's make our old friend Elphaba proud, finish her work and free the other Animals," he said bravely, soothingly, finally opening his mouth to speak as he patted Galinda's back awkwardly with a large and cloven hoof. Galinda chuckled wetly, finally peeling her face from his furry shoulder.

"It's Glinda now, sir. I changed my name after you were arrested," she said. "But I give you points for finally pronouncing my old name right," she added with another weak, wet laugh. She wiped her puffy red eyes and tried to smile at their inside joke while Dr. Dillamond, himself, chuckled a little. Ah yes, that old squabble. In days gone by, her name had been Galinda, and he had never been able to say it right. Now, as fate would have it, the moment she changed her name to the name he _did_ know how to say, he'd finally get her old one correct, for once.

"But you are right," Glinda continued, finally calming down some. "We can't just sit around grieving forever! Not when so much of Oz needs out help!" she stood up, straightening her shoulders. Dr. Dillamond was impressed with the powerful change that came over her when she did this. She continued to speak, speaking with the voice of someone wise beyond her years, a change from last time when the only thing he ever heard her say ran along the lines of, "Why can't we stop harping on about the past and actually learn some history?" Life had certainly changed Glinda! "As for your Animals," she said as Dr. Dillamond continued to listen. "I was going to ask if you wanted to actually lead the mission. It would be called 'Project: Alleviate the Animals'. I will be glad to help in any way I can, but I confess that I am woefully ignorant to the full needs and wants of your people," she paused to grin sheepishly. "I need you to be with me, help to understand them, so that I can enact policies that will really benefit them and not just be cheap, quick, superficial fixes. I want to enact real policies that will really change Oz, not just patch up a few holes in the system and call it a day. Does that make sense?" Glinda paused again, still looking sheepish, as though she were about to berate herself from some self-perceived idiocy, but Dr. Dillamond, meanwhile, was amazed at the intelligence and cunning coming from Glinda's mouth. She really had changed! And this was spoken like a true politician that actually wanted to benefit the community! He had to give her kudos for that!

"I would be honored to serve by your side, Ms. Glinda," the old Goat promised sincerely and Glinda smiled in relief while Dr. Dillamond smiled in pure excitement. He could already tell that this agreement had been one of the best deals he'd ever made and he could finally see what Elphaba had been catching glimpses of all the way back in their Shiz days. Oh yes, both she and Dr. Dillamond had made a great decision in befriending Glinda. That girl was no dumb blond anymore, though Dr. Dillamond was beginning to see that she might not have ever been even back in those Shiz days. But now, Dr. Dillamond felt like he was seeing Elphaba 2.0. Glinda was suddenly so loving, so pensive, so determined. It was such a huge change from before, and he demanded that she take him to the nearest science lab at once so that they could get started working on a cure for the Animals!

Years later, while there was still some progress to be made, quite a lot had already been covered and Glinda and Dillamond both had become legends across Oz for their noble and charitable work, not just for Animals, but for all of Oz's impoverished and down-trodden, but to Dr. Dillamond, the greatest success was not any of this fame or fortune, and it wasn't even the whole "getting to change people for the better", it was getting to work with Glinda every day and watch her continue to bloom and grow into a confident, wise, compassionate, charitable leader, the girl she'd always had the capacity to become and was at last becoming. It was an astounding thing to get to see grow.

"Thanks for everything," Glinda had said while they were having a celebratory dinner in her chambers. "Elphie would be proud of us!"

"No," Dr. Dillamond interrupted. "Thank _you_ for opening your eyes and mine and helping us both to become genuinely good. I know Elphaba would be very proud of you, because I know I am," he said and Glinda felt her eyes water a little in reply.

"My dear Elphie was right," she murmured. "You are indeed a very loving, noble Goat. Forgive my past grievances against you, sir. I was foolish," Glinda blushed guiltily at the memory of all the times she'd sneered down at him just because he looked so weird to someone like her.

"I was only doing what was right. And you are forgiven. You weren't being dumb, just innocent. We all make those mistakes. But what's important is that we grow from them, and I can safely say that you most definitely have!" he promised. "In fact, I even consider you like a daughter!" he added, but then, realizing that such a remark might be a tad too presumptuous, he drew back. "No disrespect intended upon you or your true parents, of course," he said, but Glinda only shook her gold curls.

"Don't worry about it," she promised. "While I adore my real parents, they are just like the way I used to be. They have yet to really grow up and see the world as I do, so no, I do not take it as an offense at all to be seen as your daughter. In fact, I see it as quite the compliment!" she raised her chin proudly and Dr. Dillamond smiled back in relief, touched by her confidence in him, but someone aggrieved that she would say something so sad about her own parents. It reminded him of what Elphaba had said once long ago, how her own father was too stuck in his own past to try and see the future as a bigger picture. This was what had left Elphaba feeling so out of place with him, and it seemed that Glinda felt the same. The two of them really were quite alike, weren't they? And once again, the old Goat couldn't help but wonder what it would've been like if the two young women had ever had the chance to really get together, politically and romantically both. Dr. Dillamond felt ashamed again that he had ever disparaged Glinda and considered her an unworthy equal to Elphaba, because that was not true at all. Not anymore, at least.

"In fact, I would be quite honored to call you my honorary father figure," Glinda continued and Dr. Dillamond was sure that, if he hadn't had a layer of fur in the way, his skin would be bright red from blushing.

Several more years passed and, when Dr. Dillamond finally lay on his deathbed, despite the grief from Glinda, he was still smiling because, on a personal level, he felt that he had lived a good, long, fulfilling life. It might've been slow-going at first, but in the end, he had accomplished pretty much everything he'd set out to do. He could die in peace now, his only regret being that he was leaving Glinda behind, but he knew she would survive his death alright. She was strong, just like Elphaba had been, and it was then that Dr. Dillamond's smile became beatific. Elphaba and Glinda, his two wonderful daughters. Maybe not by blood, but by time and trial, an even greater bond than blood. And he had loved them like daughters just the same and he knew that they had loved him as a father figure. That was all the old Goat needed to know in order to die in peace. And Glinda, though grieving heavily for the loss of her honorary father, still felt proud beyond words to have known him and she knew that she, like Elphaba, could not have asked for a better father figure.

 **AN: Just a long, rambling fic about the concept of fatherhood. Initially, it was going to be a three-parter with Elphaba only, each third representing one of her three fathers, but then I wanted to have Dr. Dillamond confront Frex and that original plan went out the window and, in the end, this shifted from a "Elphaba and her Dads" fic to "Father-Figure Dillamond appreciation" with a dash of "Glinda needs that kind of parenting too, especially after Act 2 of the play". Anyway, even though this fic did stray a little, I hope it still intrigued you all and got everyone to think a bit more about Elphaba's three fathers and how Glinda, just like Elphaba, needed a bit of parental love too.**


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